Settling for Great Change - Health Care Reform

Health Care Reform is a huge positive for our country, no matter what form the bill comes in. However, this particular bill, with all of the changes and compromises it has undergone in order to be passed, is not a complete positive in my opinion. It’s both a yay and a nay in my book. Yay because of change. Nay because I'm not sure it's adequate change. Is this truly a socialist move, aimed at redistributing power via access to health care more equally amongst all? Or is this just another capitalist vendetta that will privilege some individuals and corporations over others while masquerading as equality? It's exciting to see this happen, but it's scary that we don't know what it means. So I'm on the fence. I'm on the fence because it's possible that this change won't do much to actually change the lives of the People it's intended to change.
PROS
• the gender rating will be gotten rid of so that women cannot be charged more in premiums and costs than their male counter-parts

• all women can receive their preventative gynecological health care without co-pay

• power will be taken away from private insurance companies – apparently they will be told what services they are required to cover (including preventative care), they will not be allowed to deny coverage to people with pre-existing conditions, and will have to be pay a specific premium for patient care rather than being allowed to make up their own small percentage

• Medicaid will be extended to all “poor adults” rather than just the poor and disabled, elderly, pregnant, or minor

• Medicaid can offer abortion coverage if in the cases of sexual violence or health risk (which is also a con because it continues to legislate sexuality)

• employers providing insurance are required to provide domestic partner benefits

• community health centers will receive increases in funding

CONS

• an increase in funding for abstinence-only education is included in the bill

• abortion coverage does not exist except for with private insurance companies that provide it because they wish to and even then, the insurance company has to pay for the service with patient premiums rather than taxpayer subsidies

• undocumented individuals are completely excluded from health care reform – they can’t even buy insurance with their own money, they can buy private insurance but not insurance within the system that is being created (due to federal subsidies)

• Planned Parenthood – though it is a community health center – will receive a decrease in funding because of the sex education that it provides as well as the fact that these services that are directed towards the poor will now be available to the poor everywhere, ideally

• the majority of people will not see significant declines in premium costs

• the individual mandate requires that all have insurance and if they do not, they have to pay a fine of $695 per person per year – and of course we know that with inflation, this number will only increase in future years

So the undocumented individuals not being included in the plan – I get not paying taxes and therefore, not paying into the system and not receiving the benefits. But let’s face it, if immigration was made easier, they could pay into the system. And with more people paying into the system, it becomes cheaper and provides better services. So what the hell is that all about?! Also – not being able to buy your own with you own money????

As for the plan working to take away power from private insurance companies...really? It doesn’t look like it’s doing much at all to move in that direction. Yes Medicaid is still there and Medicaid is what really needed the reform because that is the program that should be working for the majority of amerikkkans (as the majority of amerikkkans are working-class rather than middle-class, even though amerikkkan politicians and therefore, citizens, like to claim that we’re all middle-class. apparently “work” is a dirty word...). But there are still people who do not qualify for Medicaid and have to have private insurance or will choose to have private insurance for whatever reason; those people, fairly certain, will continue to get screwed. I mean, when corporate personhood was just strengthened through legislation not more than a month ago, how can you honestly expect a couple of provisions to take away power from private insurance companies? CORPORATE Personhood / Insurance COMPANY. Same? DUH!!! And let’s not forget that while the plan is intended to take away power from private insurance companies, it seems to allow for a funneling of money into pharm corps. Again Pharmaceutical COMPANY. Yeah...

Finally, people are complaining about taxes. People have always complained about taxes. You know what, you can’t expect social programming and systemic services without paying into the system. There is nothing wrong or unamerikkkan about supporting your neighbor through the tax system. Pay your taxes and shut up! (of course, we do have a right to complain about the poor paying more than the rich, but that’s a whole other issue! and of course, we also have the right to complain about the system that maintains that)

Fortunately, I had the opportunity to go hear Obama speak last week here in Iowa City. (He stopped here to give a speech as this was his first stop on his health care reform tour back in the day.) I was hoping that he would side-step his highly rhetorical human rights speeches and start speaking to the people about what is happening up on capitol hill and how it affects us as citizens. Though he was eloquent as usual and entirely hilarious and charming, he never addressed my concerns. He spent about five minutes or so getting into the details of what will happen to health care during the remainder of the year and said it would take 4 years for the plan to be fully implemented. He discussed tax breaks for small business owners as a way to stimulate jobs in the economy, not being denied coverage based on a pre-condition, and the idea of excellent health care. Obama stated that this plan would provide adequate and excellent health care to all AND that the people on capitol hill would be using the same plan. THIS IS A FLAT OUT LIE that is validated through the fact that people on capitol hill do not qualify for Medicaid and therefore, have to have private insurance. Also, we’ve all heard the comments of conservative right wing republicans who are completely willing to deny abortion coverage to average women in the U.S. but are happy to have it available to their own wives (perhaps all they are allowed to do is lay on their backs...) through private insurance...the insurance that they have and will continue to have! Further, people who are on employer’s insurance are allowed to stay on it, so if members of congress stay on the insurance they are currently on, what makes anyone believe they will utilize this particular health care???? I don’t think so! We are allowing our government to create a health care plan that they would never in a million years use...

I don’t believe the bill is so entirely black and white. This is great because it means it’s accommodating more people and needs. As both a huge yay and nay, my concern is the general attitude regarding the bill among supporters. Obama said that is a step in the right direction and everyone else keeps saying that as well. I don’t know how many times I have been told to look on the bright side or to accept it for what it is and what could be in the future. Following McCarthyism, the era of Vietnam, this idea would never fly. No one would allow our People to trust our government so much as to assume that they will give us a little and continue to work for us afterwards. So why does it fly now? I have forever believed that a step in the right direction isn’t good enough; only the right direction is. We should never settle for less than we deserve as human beings. We should never settle because we think it’s better than the way things have been. Obviously, we take what we can get. But we NEVER think that it’s good enough when it isn’t what we bargained for – when it isn’t what we fought for.

The fact of the matter is, this bill is not black and white. It will benefit some at the expense of others. It will give women some rights while taking away or continuously denying them to others. It will try to elevate them. However, it will continue to deny women abortion, sex education, and birth control access thus, legislating their sexuality. Perhaps this legislation of sexuality will just manifest itself differently – for better or worse. Maybe it will continue to put the blinders on young women and effectively work to shut down the F word. Maybe it will continue to empower capitalism through money funneling.

Maybe someone should stand up and say this is not enough and hold the government accountable for the promises made to continue to change it. Make sure it continues to be revised! It is a step in the right direction but we deserve more than a step. And the money flow of citizen to government to rich to poor with taxes and subsidies and private funding doesn’t matter here. Change the structure of the system – change capitalism – if we can’t implement greater change otherwise.